Minister: Uganda's milk prospects look brighter

The minister for agriculture, animal industry and fisheries Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja has launched the Evakuula milk preservation technology sounding confident that the country milk prospects are good.

According to William Kasita, the CEO of , Small Holder Fortunes and Thermogen, the technology was developed to enable rural small holder dairy farmers to preserve their evening milk in absence of grid electricity.

With such technology, Ssempijja said the current 15% milk loss will be dealt with.

“In Uganda, there has been a reduction in the post-harvest milk losses of all the milk produced in the country from 27% in 2013 to approximately 15% today. Despite the decline, the figure of 15% loss is still very high," he said

The minister said Uganda produces over 3 billion  litres of milk per year and exports 2.2 billion litres, leaving a surplus of 800 million litres.

He said that Uganda needs to produce over 10 billion litres by 2020 in order to bring in more money in the country.

"My people at the ministry have briefed me that the Evakuula will only provide a solution at the farm gate where most milk is lost but will also increase incomes because of the extra milk sold”, he said.

He emphasised the need to work with the private sector in order to improve the dairy industry.

The Evakuula was configured to be powered by biogas because of its potential as a central component of the small holder farm eco-system.